The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
University of Missouri–St. Louis
Announces
The Twenty-sixth Annual
Robert W. Murray Lecture
Presented by
Professor Dennis W. Tokaryk
Professor of Physics
University of New Brunswick, Canada
“High-resolution molecular spectroscopy: insights into the structure of the
electron, into the contents of molecular clouds, and into the search for exoplanets around cold stars”
4:00 pm Monday, November 3, 2025
103 Benton Hall
Dennis Tokaryk is a Professor of Physics at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). He studied Engineering Physics at the University of Saskatchewan (1981-85). He then obtained his M.Sc. (1988) and Ph.D. (1992) in the Guelph-Waterloo Program for Graduate Work in Physics before taking research associate and post-doctoral positions at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC, 1993-95) and the University of Toronto (1995-97). He has been a professor of Physics at Mount Allison University (1997-2002) and at UNB (2002-present).
Dr. Tokaryk developed an unexpected interest in molecular spectroscopy and physics during his graduate studies, when the group he was in led by his Ph.D. supervisor Dr. Robert L. Brooks observed spectra of the simple molecule helium hydride (HeH) from cryogenic samples of solid hydrogen doped with helium
excited with a high-energy beam of protons. His work at the NRC exposed him to world-leading molecular scientists and developed his interest in astrophysical molecules like C3, a linear carbon chain detected in molecular clouds, and in other exotic species like argon hydride (ArH). At UNB his strong collaboration with Drs. Allan Adam and Colan Linton extended his expertise to laser-based spectroscopy of metal-bearing unstable species. Recent work from his laboratory on FeH (iron hydride) has ramifications on the search for exoplanets around cold stars, and studies of YbOH (ytterbium hydroxide) support searches for the permanent electric dipole moment of the electron.
When the Canadian Light Source synchrotron opened, Dr. Tokaryk was a member of the team that set up a far-infrared beamline for high-resolution Fourier transform spectroscopy of gas-phase molecules using the synchrotron light as a probe. He is now the far-infrared line’s beam-team leader and has continued work on astrophysically-interesting molecules while pursuing other interests in small aromatic ring molecules. He also studies molecules like malonaldehyde and NCNCS that exhibit large-amplitude motions.
Parking is available in the West Drive parking garage - Further information is available at www.umsl.edu/chemistry.
